Salt Lake City

September 27-30

We decided to make a quick trip to SLC a few weeks ago, to see for our own eyes Braden get married.  I haven't been back since we moved over 2 years ago, so it was great to see our northern Utah family again.  Fall is always a beautiful time to be in Salt Lake.  The leaves were bright and the weather was just right.  We stayed with grandma and grandpa Ellis, which is always a treat.  They are such good hosts - how can you go wrong with fresh bread and cookies everyday?!

The kids loved grandpa's new swing.  They could get pretty high (notice Noah up in the tree?).

Ava and Grant getting pushed by grandpa in the other swing.  Grandma and grandpa Ellis are the neatest people I know.  I love being around them, because they are the most unpretentious, spiritual, sweet, humble people.  They make me want to be a better person. We were fortunate to see them quite a bit when we lived in Utah, so it was fun to see them again. 

Noah found the old horse he used to ride on.

My nice parents drove up to spend some time with us.  Too bad we can't say the same for my sister Rachelle.  We drove all that way to play with her, and she hi-tails it out of town.  RUDE!  Just kidding, Shaherazod.  We did get to see her new apartment, and play at the park with her for a few hours.

Trying to distract the kids with my camera timer while we waited for our food at Cafe Rio.  That's another thing we've missed.....Cafe Rio. Yum.

While my dad, Adam and Noah went to the dinosaur museum, we (my mom, Ava, Grant, and me) went to see the new City Creek mall.  Wow, that is an amazing mall.

See, they don't hate each other.

Of course we found every water feature.

My mom wasn't a very good example and kept showing them how to get wet.

We walked around the temple.  The flowers are amazing right now.  Ava saw a bride walking around getting pictures, and she thought she was a princess.  Rachelle raced with Ava to catch her.  The bride was sweet and let Ava smell her flowers and touch her dress.

After I snapped the picture above this one, they immediately turned into dogs.  There was no cooperation after this.

Oh, sweet Granty in front of one of the many flower beds at the temple.

Shelby (Rachelle goes by many names when we are around) was craving a Lion House roll, so we stopped to get her one (because she gets whatever she wants).  You know, Rachelle, I make those rolls almost weekly, so if you came to visit you could have all you want. Just saying.

Thanks mom and dad for coming up to see us.  We had lots of fun playing (and eating) with you.

Speaking of food, we definitely hit up Gourmandise bakery while we were there.  We used to go there all the time - LOVE their almond horn cookies, eclairs, fruit tarts, OK everything.  We don't eat out as much as we did in Salt Lake, so we haven't discovered too many "must go" eateries in California.  That is one thing I liked about living in the city versus the suburbs, the food choices are so much better.  I'm sure Sacramento has some awesome places to eat, but we don't ever venture down there to find them.  Also, we've added a few kids since then, and that makes it a little more difficult to eat out.  Homemade food is better anyway, right?!

Auntie Beth and her cute girls came up a few days before the wedding to play with us too.  Beth is so fun, we love to hang out with her.  

We took the kids to the Hogle zoo.  

Wow, they've done some amazing improvements since we went last.  The kids checking out the elephant baby Zuri.  She was born right before we left Utah. 

The kids checking out the seals.

After Braden and Hanna's sealing, aunt Chris and I went down to cousin Melanie's baby shower.  She wasn't expecting me, so it was a fun surprise to walk in the door.  Melanie is Adam's double cousin (her mom is grandpa Ellis' sister, and her dad is Adam's dads brother - confused?), so some of the Ellis' as well as Wilsons were there.  It was fun to see all of them.

 

One of the main reasons for making this trip was for this.....Braden and Hanna's wedding.  Believe it or not, I didn't pull out my camera too much this trip, so I stole some of these pictures from Erica and Chris' blogs (without permission :/).  Braden lived with us in Washington while he was attending Dixie College, so we consider him one of our boys.  Remember how much water skiing we did that year, Braden? I think we went 3 times a week while he lived with us.   Wish we could have spent a little more time with all those Ellis', but we understand it was sort of a busy weekend for them. 

 

A few of us outside the Bountiful temple after the sealing.  We also got to play with grandma Connie and grandpa Rob, uncle Eli, and aunt Leah for a little while - again, not as much as we would have liked, but we'll take what we can get.  

Noah and Adam enjoying some wedding reception treats (2nd or 3rd helping) before heading home to California.  It was so good to see everyone and reminisce about our Salt Lake days.